Deadly car bomb revives memories of Colombia terror

Seven die, 138 injured

Associated Press

Published Saturday, May 19, 2001

MEDELLIN, Colombia -- A car bombing that ripped through an upscale nightclub district in Colombia's second-largest city, killing seven people and injuring 138, has brought back memories of a terror campaign waged here by drug lords a decade ago.

Young business executives and college students out drinking and dancing -- as well as street vendors -- were among victims of the explosion Thursday night that sent flames into the air and shrapnel spraying in all directions in the city of Medellin.

Police said plastic explosives packed in a Renault sedan were detonated by remote control beside a park surrounded by discos and open-air cafes.

The attack was the second car bombing in two weeks in Colombia and the second this year in Medellin. President Andres Pastrana told The Associated Press it may be related to a spiraling feud between paramilitary militias and a Medellin-based organized crime gang.

Pastrana flew to Medellin on Friday and planted a tree in the park where the bomb went off. ''United, we will defeat the violent ones,'' he declared before heading into a closed-door security summit with local officials.

Armed forces chief Gen. Fernando Tapias called the bombing a ''brutal and criminal act'', and called for the congress to pass tougher anti-terrorist laws.

Police on Friday cordoned off Medellin's tree-lined El Poblado district, where city workers swept glass and paved over the large crater left by the bomb.

At the chic Cafe Orleans, where three people seated on an outdoor terrace were killed instantly, manager John Mario Vallejo remembered seeing a huge flame and then watching people scream and run in panic through a cloud of smoke and dust. ''It was as though the atomic bomb had gone off,'' he said.

Among those killed at the cafe was Liliana Gonzalez, a Bogota brokerage house employee who was celebrating her 30th birthday with friends in her native Medellin. Foreign currency trading was halted for five minutes Friday in her honor.

Another of the dead was Hernan Dario Restrepo, a 22-year-old man who sold gourmet crepes from a cart along with this girlfriend, who is hospitalized.

Six people were killed immediately, and a seventh victim died early Friday. The explosion blew out windows 200 yards in every direction.

Most of the wounded -- the majority in their 20s and early 30s -- were released from clinics with minor injuries from flying glass and metal. But several remained in serious condition.

Coming two weeks after a car bombing in Cali -- and three days after paramilitaries abducted 200 plantation workers -- the blast underscored the growing insecurity in the South American country beset by high crime, drug trafficking and a 37-year civil war.

For the people of Medellin, it brought back chilling memories of the terror campaigns waged here during the 1980s and early 1990s by the Medellin cocaine cartel and its notorious leader, Pablo Escobar. Hundreds died in bombings aimed at pressuring the government against extraditing drug lords.

''We are experiencing something almost as demented as Pablo Escobar,'' said Vallejo, the cafe manager. ''These are sick people.''

Although the northwestern city of 3 million inhabitants has enjoyed a measure of peace since Escobar's death in 1993, Medellin is still a hotbed of crime and violence. Its poor barrios remain recruiting grounds for teen-age assassins, gang members, guerrillas and paramilitary fighters.

Among the top suspects in Thursday's bombing is La Terraza, a feared gang of toughs originally at Escobar's service, officials said. The group later allegedly carried out kidnappings and assassinations for paramilitary leader Carlos Castano, but is now a bitter enemy of the militia, which is battling guerrillas for control of large parts of Colombian territory.

A top La Terraza leader was dragged from his Medellin house and assassinated hours before Thursday night's blast -- fueling speculation the bombing was retaliation against wealthy families thought be lending support to the paramilitaries.

Also on Thursday, police arrested 30 members of a different Medellin gang involved in car theft and bank robberies.

A car bomb two weeks ago in Cali -- Colombia's third-largest city -- injured dozens, including several members of a professional soccer team staying in a hotel where the bomb was planted.

In January, a car bomb in an underground parking lot of an upscale shopping center in Medellin injured 41 people and set cars ablaze.